How to Start a Home-Based Handmade Card Business
If you already love to scrapbook and make paper crafts, making homemade greeting cards may be an excellent choice for you. If you like to spend time looking at greeting cards in the store and think you can write the friendly, heartfelt messages in these cards, then this may be an appropriate business venture. Making a profit selling handmade greeting cards takes time, hard work and perseverance. Craftspeople, artists and writers have necessary card-making skills.
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Things You'll Need
- Business license
- Resale license
- Home office space
- Large work table
- Drawers and cubbies
- Art supplies
- Card displays
- Craft fair canopy
Instructions
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Obtain a business license and a resale license. It is illegal to operate any size business in the United States of America without proper licensure.
Visit your city or town offices to obtain a business license. Tell the person at the town office what type of business you will be running out of your home. You will most likely be required to pay an annual fee to maintain a business license.
Obtain a resale license from your state. A resale license gives you the right to purchase supplies to craft greeting cards at wholesale cost and without paying sales tax. You may then sell your cards at wholesale to retail shops or at retail to the general public. When you sell at retail, you collect sales tax and remit that to the state.
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Set aside dedicated workshop space in your home. This space may be a small room or a section of a larger room. Measure the square footage of your workshop and office space because the percentage of your home that is dedicated to your business is tax deductible.
Keep everything related to your business in this office and workshop space. Keep it neat and orderly. Have a place for your files and your computer. The bulk of this space will be for creating greeting cards. You will need a spacious table and plenty of drawers and cubbies in which to keep your art supplies.
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Visit the gift shops in your area during regular business hours: 9:00 to 5:00 on Mondays through Fridays. Never try to do business with a retail store on weekends or evenings; they are too busy serving customers. Visit gift shops, ask to speak to the buyer and bring samples of your cards to show the buyer. If the buyer is unavailable, ask for her business card or if you can make an appointment. Hopefully, you will find shop owners and managers who are interested in selling your cards in their stores.
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Visit craft fairs and art shows. Get a sense of the quality of the work at the art show, and when you like the quality in the majority of booths, ask around to find the promoter of the show. Introduce yourself to the promoter and request information about applying to sell your handmade greeting cards in future shows. The promoter may give you paperwork with information, or suggest you go to his website for additional information.
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Prepare yourself to sell cards at craft shows if you want to go this route. Start with small, indoor affairs around Christmas time. Many churches and schools house small craft fairs that are inexpensive to join during the holidays.
Purchase a canopy and display setup if you are successful at selling cards to the public. These are expensive business investments that allow you to show your work at its best, both indoors and outdoors, on a year-round basis. Do not buy these things until you have been successful at small fairs and feel confident that you will benefit form working larger fairs.
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